1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a cord stopper for releasably fastening a cord thereto and adjusting the length of the cord, the cord being used on clothes, baggages and so on.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
A typical cord stopper of the type described is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 54-11210 or Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 59-78475. The disclosed cord stopper comprises a housing having a blind bore, an insert member reciprocally mounted in the blind bore and a compression coil spring disposed in the bottom of the blind bore and acting between the housing and the insert member for normally urging the insert member outward. The housing has a pair of diametrically-opposed through apertures formed transversely through the peripheral wall thereof, and the insert member has a through hole formed transversely therethrough. By inserting the insert member into the cavity against the bias of the compression coil spring, the through hole of the insert member is able to come into alignment with the apertures of the housing for insertion of a cord therethrough.
In use, the insert member is thrust into the cavity against the bias of the compression coil spring until the through hole of the insert member comes into alignment with the apertures of the housing. While holding the insert member and the housing in this disposition by his fingers, a user threads a cord through the through hole and the apertures of the insert member and the housing, respectively. As soon as the fingers are released from the cord stopper, the insert member moves outward of the housing under the bias of the compression coil spring, thereby bringing the through hole of the insert member and apertures of the housing out of alignment, so that the cord is caught or fastened by the unaligned through hole and apertures. Consequently, the cord is releasably fastened to the cord stopper.
All that is necessary to release the cord from the cord stopper is to compress the insert member and the housing between fingers against the bias of compression coil spring until the through hole and the apertures are coaligned and then remove the cord through the through hole and the aperture while they are coaligned.
However, the conventional cord stopper suffered from a drawback in that threading the cord through the cord stopper while holding the insert member and the housing with their through hole and the through apertures coaligned by fingers is a very tedious operation, especially if the bias of the coil spring is very strong. If the bias of the spring is reduced to a certain extent, then the threading operation becomes much easier, but the essential function of the cord stopper of fastening the cord thereto becomes much decreased. On the other hand, if the bias of the spring is increased to a certain extent, then the cord stopper can accomplish a satisfactory fastening function but the cord-threading operation becomes much more difficult.